Sunshine: Thursday December 12, 2013

While some frequent flyers love to save up those miles for future travel, businessman Peter Shankman banks his for other people. Shankman travels close to 250,000 miles a year for speaking engagements and book tours, and last year decided to use his miles to give free round trip holiday flights to people in need.

“I live on a plane,” he told ABC News, “The last thing I want to do over the holidays is travel somewhere.” For Shankman’s first year as travel Santa he was able to send home four people who couldn’t afford a flight. And this year, thanks to anonymous donors and JetBlue, Shankman doled out 25 free trips.

Winners were announced Monday, although Shankman said it was a lot easier to pick the lucky travelers last year when there were only four tickets to give away. Still, he didn’t have a say in any of the winners. “I make my assistant do it,” he said. “I don’t want to be heartbroken.”